New Living Translation
Job 38:8
8“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb,
Job 38:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
- New International Version (NIV)“Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
- English Standard Version (ESV)"Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,
- New King James Version (NKJV)“Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
Context of Job 38:8
6What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone 7as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb, 9and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness? 10For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores.
Read all of Job 38Job 38:8 word by word
וַיָּ֣סֶךְ בִּדְלָתַ֣יִם יָ֑ם בְּ֝גִיח֗וֹ מֵרֶ֥חֶם יֵצֵֽא׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Job 38:8
- Job 38:10For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores.
- Genesis 1:9Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened.
- Psalms 33:7He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs.
- Psalms 104:9Then you set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth.
- Proverbs 8:29I was there when he set the limits of the seas, so they would not spread beyond their boundaries. And when he marked off the earth’s foundations,
- Jeremiah 5:22Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in my presence? I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.
- Job 38:29Who is the mother of the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?
Commentaries on Job 38:8
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 8Who shut up the sea with doors - Who gathered the waters together into one place, and fixed the sea its limits, so that it cannot overpass them to inundate the earth? When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? - This is a very fine metaphor. The sea is represented as a newly born infant issuing from the womb of the void and formless chaos; and the delicate circumstance of the liquor amnii, which bursts out previously to the birth of the…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8Or who shut up the sea with doors - This refers also to the act of the creation, and to the fact that God fixed limits to the raging of the ocean. The word “doors” is used here rather to denote gates, such as are made to shut up water in a dam. The Hebrew word properly refers, in the dual form which is used here דלתים delethiym ), to “double doors,” or to folding doors, and is also applied to the gates of a city; Deuteronomy 3:5; 1 Samuel 23:7; Isaiah…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 4-11Verses 4-11 For the humbling of Job, God here shows him his ignorance, even concerning the earth and the sea. As we cannot find fault with God's work, so we need not fear concerning it. The works of his providence, as well as the work of creation, never can be broken; and the work of redemption is no less firm, of which Christ himself is both the Foundation and the Corner-stone. The church stands as firm as the earth.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-41God challenges Job. Job admits he cannot judge the moral world. God shows Job's ignorance of the natural world's elements related to the realm of heaven, weather, animals, and birds (38:4–21; 22–38; 39–39:30).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 88. doors--floodgates; these when opened caused the flood (Ge 8:2); or else, the shores. womb--of chaos. The bowels of the earth. Image from childbirth (Job 38:8, 9; Eze 32:2; Mi 4:10). Ocean at its birth was wrapped in clouds as its swaddling bands.Read the comment
Topics related to Job 38:8
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Job 38
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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